Grant A Wish 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program

Donation amount

$10$25$50

2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program

For the past 37 years, Grant A Wish has sponsored a holiday program that provides holiday wishes to needy, disabled and abused children for the Christmas holiday every December. Go to the application page and download a copy of the sponsors booklet and learn about sponsoring gifts, available September 1, 2018 up to Christmas December 2018. Agencies applying can also get a copy of the agency booklet, which will be available September 2018…

Contact Email: vitalthomas@grantawishincchicago.org

Our Annual Holiday Gift Programis a great program designed to help specifically agencies withneedy, disabled and abused childrenfor theAnnual Christmas Holiday.Beginning in 2005, the Annual Holiday Gift Programwas established to create a program just for this holiday, before that is was included in the general wish program. Our2018 Annual Holiday Gift Programwill be introducing some new changes for agencies participating to receive holiday gifts for their childrenDecember 2018.

Agencies must sign a contract and agree to certain rules & regulations. The details are available and are related to the disbursement of gifts to the children for this 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program. Our selection process has improved as to which agencies will be allowed to participate. Our sponsors and supporters are important to us and we want them to participate more in the giving of the gifts to our agencies children in Christmas 2018. As of 2016, we have increased the amount to be spent on a gift from $50.00 to $60.00, which is still optional for the sponsor, but we have had the gift purchase amount at $50.00 for over 20 years and it has never increased until now. Also the cost of some gifts are more expensive these days than in the past due to technology, toys being more advanced and costing a little more than in years past.

Participating sponsorswill be sent a list with anywhere from 10 to20 children’s names, each name will have an assigned wish number, also listing their sex , age, and a 1st & 2nd request for each individual child. The reason for the 1st & 2nd request, is for the gifts availability and to have a choice as to what gift to purchase, but only one has to be purchased. It is up to the sponsor if they which to buy both gifts for the one child. The participating community based agency must follow our guidelines for the program.Many of the children may ask for a variety of different things based on new toys advertised, clothing or new games in the marketplace. But many will ask for basic items like a toy, game, new shoes, coat, hat/gloves/scarfs, doll, electronic educational game, advanced games or basically anything advertised.

You or your sponsoring groupcan determine how many gifts you want topurchase and for how many children. Corporations or groups can help sponsor a holiday party for the children and directly give the gifts to those children or attend a holiday party organized by the agency to witness distribution of the gifts. Corporations for an example: will take, 20, 60 or 100 names and split the list up among-st their office or company employees. Each employee taking one or multiple names, providing what the child wants and following the instructions for wrapping, labeling and returning the gift to yourcompany coordinator for our holiday program. We have deadlines for delivery or pick up’s based on agency party dates, which is going to be streamlined for 2018 within several weeks before Christmas of 2018. For completed purchases or tax purposes, we send out a package with individual tax letters for all of your company individual employees who request one, based on expenditure amounts for gifts purchased. Only for those who have gone out and purchased a gift for a child. The amount should be no more than $60.00 per gift, unless you are purchasing multiple gifts for several children collectively by yourself, but it is up to the sponsor as to what they are willing to spend for that child or multiple children they are assigned. If you spend more we will send you a tax letter for whatever amount you spend. Whatever is listed as the expenditure for the gift, that will be the amount on the tax letter. If you purchase multiple gifts for more than one child than the total amount will be on the tax letter. Just let us know the breakdown of the purchases.

Grant A Wishis looking for individuals, families, small businesses, and corporate sponsorsthroughout the Greater Chicago-land area, including the suburbs to participate in our 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program. You can help fill holiday wishes for needy, disabled and abused children. We provide holiday gifts to our agencies for their children. Your company or group will split up the holiday wish request with your employees or associates and they will go out and purchases those gifts, wrap them, label them (with the appropriate information on each gift label), bag multiple gifts, label and deliver them to Grant A Wishor make arrangements for us to pick up the gifts or your company can drop them offto the agency directly. All agencies are assigned acolorcode for their gifts and all bags must have the appropriatecoloredribbon affixed and a tag listing the numerical order of gifts in that bag foridentification purposes. All individual gifts are not to exceed the cost of$60.00,in some cases a child might ask for an item that may be reasonable in price and both items can be purchased as long as both items are reasonable in cost for the sponsor or the sponsor wants to buy both. It is ultimately up to the discretion of the sponsor what financial limitations they are willing to impose.Giftsplaced in bags should be in some sort of numerical order.

All donations are tax deductible for your purchases for theGrant A Wish2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program. Sponsors can save money on purchases by searching for bargains, utilize or seek coupons(digital or paper), shop online, search for sales, shop at discount stores, etc. Keep your receipts for your purchases for your taxes and for your records. You have tokeep in mind the importance of agreeing to grant wishes around theChristmas Holidayfor many of these children, that is why starting in 2015, at the end of the sponsors booklet is a simple contract or agreement that you fill out agreeing to follow through to complete your involvement in the holiday program to purchase gifts, it is now mandatory for 2018.We can provide you with our State of Illinois Retail Tax Exemption Letter to save on collective retail tax on purchases only. You can work withGrant A Wishfor assistance with large purchases to save on the state tax if the retailer wants us to be register in order to use the tax exemption, but only for purchases related to our organization’s2018 Annual Holiday Gift Programto save money when you are spending money collectively on gifts for the children.We encourage that you purchase the item the child has requested to make the wish more fulfilling. If you are pooling money together to buy gifts then the tax letter will save you money especially, if you are spending more than $100.00 to $500.00 at any one time, by saving you money on the retail taxes. You may be able to purchase an extra gift for a child with the extra savings or just save some money.

Most of the list with children’s names are being sent out to companies within the firsttwo weeks of November of each year into December and all gifts are expected atGrant A Wish or the agency or to the agencies holiday party directly at some point in the Month ofDecember. (Agencies must sponsor a holiday party at their expense to disburse the gifts to the children, on a date selected in the month of December 2018 prior to Christmas.) We work to ensure our agencies comply with our written agreements related to the children receiving the collective specifically assigned gifts. We are always looking for trustworthy volunteers who want to help with our Annual Holiday Gift Program. Grant A Wish is also considering hosting our own holiday party to disburse gifts, but depends on donations or sponsors to help host a party, info will be available soon.

Together we can provide

” GIFT THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE “

We encourage thatpurchased holiday gifts are positive for the childand we discourage children from asking for unreasonable items, like:

1. Items over $60.00 (Sponsorship Discretion)

2. Bicycles

3. Cellphones

4. Play guns, knives or weapons

5. Or any item that may be deem inappropriate for a child.

6. Video games or game system games that are too violent in its content.

99% of the times before lists are sent out to companies providing gifts, we check for items that are on our do not purchase list or items that are over the cost of $60.00. But sometimes an item may get pass us on the list, so we need your help to make sure items that are deemed inappropriate are not purchased. When it comes to video games, we think some games are educationally challenging and help a child develop skills. But you can substituted the item with something age appropriate, if you personally feel the gift is damaging for the child. On some system games, like Xbox or PlayStation games have age restrictions. But it is up to the sponsor whether you want to purchase that item, because children will normally get access to games restricted through other means or the age may be borderline. Most of the time violent games are given age restrictions due to the intensity of the game content.

We want children to be happy and to have some expectation of joy, especially around the Christmas Holiday, the season of giving from the heart. It is OK for a child to have dreams, wishes or to want to possess something that will make them excited, like a new toy or game, or a new pair of shoes, or a new coat, or a variety of things which most of the time are material in nature.When the gifts are delivered toGrant A Wish. Your company or group may receive a Thank You package from the agency or the Grant A Wish 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program thanking your sponsors or donors for their support upon request and any tax information for their individual donation. If individual names are not provided to Grant A Wish for tax purposes, then the company must make sure we receive that information in order to receive tax letters & receipts based on the information provided.

All of the wish numbers forGrant A Wish, Incagency children begin with the year: Example: 2018- the number xxxx. Each program except the food program are assigned blocks of wish numbers at the beginning of each year for their program clients.

Contact us, if you want to participate in our

Grant A Wish 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program.

For information on how to participate email:info@grantawishincchicago.org

Review our instruction booklet on our application page,available after September 1, 2017 and make sure it is something that you will be able to complete. You can email us and we can provide the necessary information for your company, group, family, or as an individual wanting to help provide gifts. We have a basic agreement for multiple gift purchases by you or your group. usually for first time participants, but not manadatory, that you agree to follow, between you, your group andGrant A Wish, Incthat you agree to provide the designated gifts around the designated time in December 2018. Agency children are depending on these gifts for the upcoming December 2018 Holiday and we do not want to disappoint them with late or absent gifts. We want to thank you in advance for your love, your support and by helping to make this year’s 2018 Annual Holiday Gift Program a great successfor the children we provide gifts.